


Thief

by traveler_of_heart



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, Swan Queen - Freeform, What else can I tell ya?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 14:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16812217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traveler_of_heart/pseuds/traveler_of_heart
Summary: There's a thief and Emma's determined to catch her. Or something like it.





	Thief

Regina Mills was a thief.

Emma had the evidence right in front of her, but there was little chance the case could even make it to court. 

_ Yes, Your Honor, I saw her taking some of my french fries. _

They were having lunch at Granny’s, just the two of them. As usual, Regina got kale salad and iced tea. As usual, she gave Emma one of her side glances when the blonde ordered a cheeseburger with extra fries.

It happened once before, when they were having dinner with Henry, but it was only one fry and Henry didn’t see it, so she had no witnesses. 

This time, clear as day, Regina’s hand came forward and grabbed one of her fries, her eyes briefly meeting Emma’s, daring her to say something about it. 

She didn’t.

So Regina kept talking about her meeting with the dwarves and their agreement on health insurance for their work in the mines.

“Look at you, getting along with the little people”   


“You’re being offensive”

“I meant  _ little people _ as in regular citizens” 

“Oh”, Regina nodded, munching on another french fry. “What about you? How’s the case of the stolen mailboxes across Stevenson Street?”

“No leads. It’s probably some kid pulling a prank, so we’re not too concerned about it” Regina took two more fries. “But still, it’s costing the townspeople money so we should find him fast”

“How many mailboxes have disappeared?” Regina said, laying down two more of Emma’s fries in her own plate. 

“Six”

“Six? I must have lost the reports for the last two, then?”

Emma blinked, confused. 

“Wait. Four”

Six was the number of fries Regina had taken so far. Emma wasn’t good with numbers.

“Anything the matter, dear?” Regina said with a smirk, biting down the last fry and licking her fingers clean.

“Yeah. Nothing” she answered with a weak voice. So Regina was stealing  _ and _ flaunting it in front of the Sheriff. Shameless.

The brunette rolled her eyes, although there was a hint of a smile and grabbed her purse.

“I have a meeting. Lunch is on me”, she placed a 20 dollar bill on the table. Before she left, Regina looked at the blonde’s plate, grabbed the last fry and bit down slowly, putting on a little show. “Good day, Sheriff Swan”

“Yeah, good day, Madame…” but Regina left before Emma could sort her thoughts. She sat there for a while. She finally smiled and pulled out a little blue notebook she had bought precisely for this.

_ April 30th _

_ Pretty brunette wearing a burgundy dress stole seven of my french fries. No witnesses, physical evidence has been eaten. Literally. _

_ Will report more on the case of the beautiful thief as it evolves. _   
  


*

Emma was reading some of the reports on the mailbox thief again. She was sure she was missing something. “Why don’t you use magic?” Henry had asked. Truth be told, the blonde could use some real work that put her skills to the test. It had been a while since she had dealt with stuff that wasn’t fairy tale related and she was feeling like herself again. Plus, it was just mailboxes so nobody was really getting hurt.

Emma’s phone rang and she looked at the screen, reading her own name on the caller ID.

“Are you from the future?” she said, feigning confusion.

“Are you dumb or do you just like to annoy me?” Regina answered and Emma snorted.

“Usually the first but right now the latter”

“Well, you could have left a message in my office about our phone mix up. I had to find out when your mother called and asked me if I needed extra tampons”

“Oh, yeah. I could use them. What did you tell her?”

“I told her she had the wrong number and hung up”

“See? Now you have to buy me tampons”

“Unlikely. We’ll exchange phones when I drop by the station”

“Only if you get me ice cream” Emma said, spinning in her chair, grinning like a child. Regina was obviously annoyed by the whole deal and it was making the blonde’s day ten times better.

“What makes you think you have bargaining power?”

“Uh…”

“If you don’t give me my phone back I will tell Snow you have her as  _ Birth Giver  _ on your contact list and that her ringtone is the theme from  _ Jaws _ ”

“Woah, hey, there’s no need to make things hard” Emma stopped spinning and straightened in her chair. “No one needs to get hurt, Regina”

“That’s what I thought” she could practically see the other woman’s smirk. Regina had won and she knew it. “See you in a bit”

“I will be alone and unarmed” Emma joked, but Regina hung up mid sentence. 

The blonde pulled out the blue notebook and prepared her latest report.

_ May 5th _

_ The suspect was in a state of intoxication when she took my cell phone, presumably by mistake. She once again used her beautiful smile and gorgeous eyes to distract me. Only reported it the next day, while making threats against birth giver.  _

_ Theories _

_ She used my phone to make long distance calls, buy stuff or to pull pranks on strangers. _

_ Notes:  _

_ Regina giggles when she’s drunk. It’s adorable. _

Emma kept reading the entry, smiling like an idiot with the memories of the night before. After dinner, Henry had gone upstairs to play on his computer, leaving both women to talk in Regina’s study over a bottle of wine. And some scotch. Maybe shots at the end.

When the blonde returned from the bathroom, Regina was sleeping -and slightly snoring-, on her couch. Emma looked at her for a moment, her heart fluttering at the sight of the brunette. She draped a small blanket to keep the other woman warm, took her phone from the coffee table and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke. 

She only realised she had taken Regina’s phone instead of hers when she was in bed, too tired and drunk to care.

And now here she was, eager to see Regina if only to tease her some more and finally get her phone back. It was fifteen minutes after their conversation that the brunette showed up, using magic to get there.

Emma walked slowly towards her, holding Regina’s phone.

“Let’s do this, Madame Mayor”

“Fine. You first”

“There”, Emma surrendered, placing the phone on David’s desk. Regina took it and held Emma’s phone in her open palm. The blonde reached for the phone cautiously, making the brunette roll her eyes.

“Thank you. Henry and I will see you later at Granny’s” Regina said with her no-nonsense tone and left in a cloud of purple smoke. Emma sat back down and checked her email before going to the gallery.

Regina had saved a video, most likely by accident. She was wearing the outfit from yesterday, a goofy and slightly inebriated smile on her face. She struggled to focus the phone on her face and when she did, her eyes looked at the screen and she chuckled.

“Oh, this is actually recording”, she said and the video stopped. 

The other thing she found was a selfie of Regina and Henry, probably taken that morning while they had breakfast at the mansion.

_ Update: Pretty brunette returned the item. No suspicious calls were found.  _

_ She’s more adorable than previously suspected. _

Emma forgot to mention that she put the picture of Regina and Henry as her screensaver.

**

Emma looked at her notes, chewing on the cap of her pen, a bad habit she couldn’t quit, especially when she was puzzled by what she had in front of her.

_ May 10th _

_ Beautiful brunette was in my apartment, teaching me how to cook something -I forgot what it was, ok- when she got tomato sauce all over her shirt. Gave her my Red Sox sweatshirt. She hated it. _

_ Notes:  _

_ Regina looked beautiful in it.  _

_ May 23rd - Where is it? _

_ Theories _

_ She burned it _

_ Gave it to a homeless person (Check if there are homeless people in Storybrooke) _

_ Used it to clean something and then threw it out _

_ Forgot about it (Super unlikely) _

It had been almost two weeks since that day and Regina hadn’t even mentioned the sweatshirt. To be honest, Emma wouldn’t even remember had it not been for the little blue notebook and the case of the beautiful thief. It wasn’t that she didn’t have enough comfy clothes either, she had plenty of those. She was just genuinely puzzled about what had happened to it. 

Regina had made such a big deal about wearing something “so ordinary” that Emma figured she would wash it -because it was Regina, and of course she would- and give it back as soon as possible, God forbade someone saw it in her closet.

“Yeah, come in”, she said when someone knocked, the pen between her teeth.

“You should really check who is at your door before inviting them in” Regina scolded, carrying a bag with her.

“Regina!” Emma bolted up, hiding the notebook. She bit the pen so hard the end broke, her mouth full of ink. “Son of a bitch”

“I came to return your sweater” she heard Regina scream from the kitchen, while she washed her face. “Can I use the bathroom from upstairs?”

“Sure!” Emma answered, desperately brushing her tongue with her toothbrush. After scrubbing her face and using mouthwash to remove the taste of ink, she walked out of the bathroom at the same time Regina went down the stairs.

“As I was saying, I just came by to return your sweater” she nodded to the kitchen island, where Emma’s sweatshirt rested, perfectly folded.

“Great, thanks”

“Well…” Regina looked around nervously, her hand soothing imaginary wrinkles in her dress. “See you tomorrow”

“Sounds great”

Regina nodded and turned around to leave.

“You still have ink on your lip” she said without looking at Emma and slamming the door behind her.

“Oh, damn it”

Emma took her notebook and sweatshirt to her room. She entered the master bathroom and washed her face once again, making sure all traces of blue ink were actually gone. The blonde jumped to her bed, ready to update the thief report, putting on the Red Sox sweatshirt to sleep.

_ May 25th _

_ Pretty, gorgeous, stunning brunette returned sweatshirt, perfectly folded and washed. _

_ Notes: _

_ Now it smells just like her. I may never take it off. _

Emma smiled and let the scent of Regina invade her senses as she drifted off to sleep.

**

Regina wasn’t proud. 

She didn’t consider herself a thief.

Emma’s sweatshirt smelled just like her and so Regina couldn’t help herself. After the blonde gave it to her, she wore it everyday to sleep until the scent began to fade away, which was frankly disappointing.

When she went to Emma’s apartment to return it, she had no plans to steal anything. But Emma disappeared, too distraught about the ink on her face -idiot-, and Regina saw an opportunity.

She went upstairs and took an oversized Boston shirt. Would Emma ever notice? Honestly, she was too messy. So Regina hoped that if the blonde took notice of the missing shirt, she’d figure it had gotten lost. Clothes disappear all the time, right?

Regina sighed, slightly ashamed. But the feeling went away as soon as she put on the shirt, Emma’s perfume calming her down.

Was Regina proud of herself? Most definitely not.

And yet, she went to sleep with a smile on her face.

**

“Come in”, Regina said, holding a report, a frown on her face.

“What was that about asking who’s there before inviting them in?” Emma said, closing the door behind her.

“This is my office, if my secretary let someone I don’t want to see pass by her I should definitely fire her”

“Well, no need for that. I just wanted to let you know we caught the mailbox thief”

“Oh, congratulations, Sheriff. Who is it?”

Emma sighed.

“Pongo”

“Come again?” Regina put the document down and tighten her lips in a fine line, trying hard not to laugh. Emma rolled her eyes.

“I found a paw print last night next to Mrs. Scarn’s driveway. I asked Archie and he found the mailboxes buried in his backyard. Apparently Pongo figured out how to get out of the house and decided they were pretty cool toys”

“Interesting” Regina covered her mouth with her hand, pretending she was processing the new information.

“Ok, just laugh. Ha-ha. I was working for over a month in a stupid case”

“It was not stupid, Sheriff. I’m happy to see you’re keeping the criminals of Storybrooke on a tight leash”

“Seriously?”

Regina erupted with laughter at that.

“Just throwing a bone, Sheriff”, she said going back to her documents, stretching her arm as much as she could.

“You want me to hold that on the town line so you can read it?” 

“What is  _ that _ supposed to mean?” she said, slamming her hand against the desk.

“That you need glasses and refuse to acknowledge it” 

“How dare you” 

“Fine. Humor me” Emma pulled a case from her jacket pocket and handed a pair of black rimmed glasses to Regina. 

“Why do you have this constant need to prove me wrong?” the brunette huffed, taking the glasses away from Emma and putting them on.

“Because it rarely happens”

“Well, you’re wrong again. I don’t need glasses”

“You lie, lady. Now hand them over”

“How dare you, calling me a liar!” Regina said, standing up, her hands on the desk. “I think it’s time for you to leave”

“Fine, give me my glasses” 

“Goodbye, Miss Swan”

“But my…”

A cloud of purple smoke swallowed her and she appeared back at the station. 

“Glasses” she said, rolling her eyes.

Emma pulled out her phone.

_Thanks a lot, I drove to City Hall. Now I’ll have to go back there to get my car._

**_That’s unfortunate._ **

_ What about my glasses? _

_**You can have them by the end of the day, Miss Swan.** _

_**Thank you.** _

Emma rolled her eyes again and pulled out the little blue notebook.

_ May 28th _

_ She took my glasses. I was promised I’d have them back by the end of the day. Perhaps I’ll pretend I forget them and let her have them. Don’t want to get a call that she ran someone over because she couldn’t see them. _

_ Notes: _

_ She looked cute and kinda hot. Sexy librarian vibes. _

_ ** _

Emma didn’t ask for her glasses back, but Regina took them to her apartment anyway.

“Hey, don’t we have that town meeting in an hour or so? You didn’t need to come all the way here”

“I was just passing by. Maybe we could go to the town meeting together and then have dinner with Henry. I also brought you cookies” Emma reached for the food container, but Regina snatched it away. “Put them in one of your own bowls. I don’t want you to lose any more of mine”

“Fine” Emma rolled her eyes, pulling a plate from her pantry.

“Can I use the upstairs bathroom?”

“Uh, sure” 

Regina nodded and went upstairs, still carrying her bag. Weird.

Emma shrugged her shoulders and kept working with the cookies; she got a text just as she was biting down on one of them. Once she read it, she chuckled and decided she had to see Regina’s face when she heard the news. Emma went upstairs typing a quick reply and opened the door to her room without knocking

“Hey, Regina, Snow says she wants to do her presentation tonight, is that cool with...?”

The brunette backed away from the closet, another sweatshirt in her hands.

“Regina? What is going on?” 

“I… was taking something for… Henry?” Regina stammered, her cheeks red.

“So, I guess sweatshirts are more comfortable than you wanted to admit, huh?” Emma said, still looking a little puzzled. “You could have kept my Red Sox shirt if you wanted, you know?”

“I’m sorry. I… should go” Regina practically leapt to the door, looking mortified.

“Hey, come on. What is it?” Emma grabbed her wrist. “You can tell me anything”

“It’s embarrassing”

“Try me” Emma shrugged her shoulders, looking like nothing could scare her. This was such a weird situation that Regina figured the only way to explain it was with the truth.

“I just… I gave you the sweatshirt back because it stopped smelling like you. So I took another shirt hoping you wouldn’t notice” Regina said in a low voice, avoiding eye contact. “.”

“Oh” Emma said, her cheeks red and heart beating so fast she felt it was gonna jump out of her chest. “I hadn’t, actually”

“Great, I made an even bigger ass of myself”

Emma let out at a small laugh at that and Regina finally looked up.

“I was being stupid, I should just...”

“Wait, no! I’m not laughing at you. It’s just… I had this whole stupid thing where I wrote down stuff you took from me. Pretending it was a real case and I was investigating it. And it turns out you actually took something and I never even noticed”

“What did you wrote down?”

Emma looked into Regina’s eyes and sighed. She walked to her nightstand and pulled the drawer, grabbing the little blue notebook.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?”

Regina looked at the notebook quizzically and took it. With each page, her smile widen and she actually let out a laugh when she got to the last entry. Emma smiled too, feeling exposed and vulnerable and a little scared… Until Regina put the notebook down and kissed her, her arms going around her neck. Emma pulled her by the waist and lifted her from the ground, Regina chuckling against her lips when they broke the kiss.

_ May 28th _

_ Regina Mills stole a kiss from me. _

_ Notes: _

_ It was perfect. _

*

Emma Swan didn’t use the little blue notebook again. Sure, Regina wore her clothes and took her glasses when no one was watching. She grabbed fries from her plate all the time and grabbed her phone by mistake when they left for work. 

Emma didn’t mind. She never had, not even when she was writing those things down; it was just a way to remember small moments when she felt like Regina took a part of Emma with her. But now that they were together, she was too busy living it and enjoying it to write it down.

One day she came across the little notebook and decided to take a look at it, for old times sake.

At the end of her last entry, she found a little message. It was Regina’s elegant handwriting.

_ Emma Swan stole my heart a very long time ago. _   
  



End file.
